First published 2025
Nesi has failed ninety-six auditions with the Ninety-Nine Pillars of Heaven. Without divine patronage, she can never leave her temple home. Her godly bloodline means nothing if no deity will sponsor her. Desperate, she turns to T'sidaan, the Fox of Tricks. Folk tales paint the Fox as a harmless prankster, but T'sidaan's test proves deadly serious. The god hurls Nesi three centuries into the past, when the Wolfhounds of Zemin occupy her homeland. Her mission: steal a fortress from the Wolf of the Hunt, the disgraced 100th Pillar who was cast out in exile. Nesi must master the arts of deception and cunning to survive in this brutal time. She gathers allies from the past, but the Wolfhounds of Zemin are fierce enemies. The Fox god has given her a chance to save herself by saving her ancestors, but success demands she become someone entirely new.
Genres: adventure, fantasy, action, epic-fantasy, historical-fantasy
Vibes: dark, epic, fast-paced, gritty, suspenseful
Tropes: chosen-one, fish-out-of-water, found-family, high-stakes-mission
Setting: Temple, Ninety-Nine Pillars of Heaven, Zemin, Homeland
Period: Three centuries past
192 pages · Paperback · Tachyon Publications
Content warnings: death, violence